Wounds

The standout story in this collection of Star Trek: S.C.E. stories is really the title piece, a double-length one by Ilsa J. Bick about Doctor Elizabeth Lense. Lense is one of my favorite S.C.E. characters, and though I don't think she gets as much focus as she should (not as little as Pattie or Soloman, though), when she does, it's always good. The story is Bick at her best: a bunch of messed-up people in a messed-up circumstance, doing their best to survive and hold themselves together; Lense is amazingly not even the most messed-up person here. Strong, raw writing carries the reader through an intense scenario. There's nothing particularly standout about the rest of the book, however; even Bick's other contribution, Lost Time, falls a bit flat. Cory Rushton's Fables of the Prime Directive had some good ideas, though; it's a shame we never saw Trek work from him again.